Book Description
Turn the Net's info revolution into a do-it-yourself business. Having a passion for uncovering obscure Net data? Turn your passion into a rewarding career with the Third Edition of The Information Broker's Handbook, by Sue Rugge and Alfred Glossbrenner. The world's leading information broker, Rugge shares her research and business secrets alike-showing you how to get started brokering information, stay successful and grow as you do. It's all here-guidelines for setting prices, tips for drawing up contracts, billing do's and don'ts-plus the hands-on help you need to: market yourself as an expert information broker and build a roster of high-paying clients; get your hands on FREE or low-cost information you can re-package and sell; turn data from the Net, Web, libraries, public records, BBSs, SIGs, online databases and other sources into sought-after intelligence; exploit the latest connectivity hardware and software-from browsers and ISDN lines to high-speed modems and CD-ROMs.
Customer Reviews:
still valuable, if a bit dated.......2003-04-01
Reading a book like this makes you appreciate the rapid advancement of internet technology and the availability of online resources. In some ways this book reads like ancient history. (Remember Archie and Gopher? ftp?) That said, you can still learn how to use many older and traditional information resources, and the book's main focus -- becoming a professional information broker -- remains relevant and intact.
Part One, The Information Business, defines the market for information and the role and requirements of a professional information broker. Part Two, Fundamental Tools and Techniques, is a user-friendly guide to library, government and public records resources. These two sections are still quite useful, though obviouisly incomplete. Part Three, Electronic Options and Alternatives, is outdated, addressing no World Wide Web resources at all, though it does cover online special interest groups (SIGs) and bulletin boards (BBSs) well. Part Four, The Business Side of Information Brokering, is quite valuable and deals with completing a project, marketing, sales, pricing, contracts and billing.
Appendices cover essential resources (books, software and magazines), vendors, conferences, associations and seminars. An accompanying 3-1/2-inch floppy disk contains the appendices as well as electronic forms and letters, and a sample report. Stylistically, this disc is like a fine black & white movie. ASCII text files ensure accessibility by multiple platforms, and elegant but casual writing combined with beautifully-formatted text is information rich. If you buy this book used, make sure you get the disk too.
In short, while some of the content is quite outdated, this book and disk would still prove invaluable for someone who is interested in becoming an information professional. Rich in content, accessible in style.
My information "Bible!".......2000-04-28
A friend recently said I have "an almost pathological passion" for research. Yip, he's right! And this book, along with Reva Basch's "Researching Online For Dummies" has been of invaluable help. I read some parts of both nearly everyday. I've read in other reviews that The Information Broker's Handbook was skimpy on where to find info online. Maybe, but that wasn't the whole point of the book. And, at nearly 580 pages, it is more than sufficient in detail and is a clear, informative guide. Most people probably wouldn't pick a technical manual to read for recreational reading, but it is so interestingly written that it really is hard to put down, and you learn so much even from casual reading a bit at a time. I love this book, and couldn't do without it. It is perfect for information nuts, especially since the Internet is a knowledge junkie's paradise!
Solid Basic of Starting an Information Brokering Business.......2000-04-08
In contrast to Mary Ellen's book, this book is actually for self-starters who are thinking about creating their own small business and covers such excellent basics as the market for information, what an information broker does, the pros and cons of the information business, and then the tools, followed by chapters on marketing, pricing, and project management. Although seven years old now, I still regard this as a good starting point for those who would understand the information brokering business (a small niche within the larger open source intelligence business).
Readable guide to the business aspect.......1999-10-11
This is written in a breezy, but not simplistic style. Ninety percent of it is on the social and business aspects of being an information broker, so the book is good for that. Treatment of info-searching skills is rather skimpy and probably won't tell you anything that you didn't learn in college.
Thorough, engaging and more importantly, very useful........1998-10-17
If you are considering information brokering, this should be the first book you read. It is quite complete, yet you can skim it easily because of how well the material is organized. This is an easy read, as well, thanks to the writing style. Most important of all, you will get current, practical and valuable information. Enjoy!
Customer Reviews:
If you are a student - steer clear!.......2006-02-10
This was probably written to be a lab manual for a class. I bought it as a professional to polish up on my DSP. It contains "hands on" exercises in Matlab to demonstrate DSP principles. My two main gripes are the same with this book as most other engineering books and are as follows: (1) it is not written to it's intended audience - the student. It is written for the professor (ie the authors colleagues) and (2) it contains no solutions (as a previous reviewer stated). I would also like to point out that Matlab 5 is "old" now and some of the functions used in this book have been renamed in the later version of Matlab. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY ON THIS BOOK.
A collection of DSP exercises, NOT a textbook.......2003-12-25
This book is, as the title says, a collection of DSP exercises. What little mention there is of theory, is basically mere keywords and hints to more theoretical textbooks. The student is also expected to have a working knowledge of MATLAB. The focus of the book is getting hands-on experience with DSP, using MATLAB as a very convenient tool to this end. The authors mention that the intended audience is senior undergraduates and first-year graduate students. I'm not sure if I understand the American educational system, but I think that means the audience of this book is expected to have at least two semesters of basic DSP training.
The book is organized in 12 chapters. The chapters are divided into sections that treat more detailed issues. The chapter and section headings are:
1 Basic Signals and Systems
- Signals
- Difference Equations
- Fourier Transform: DTFT
- Group Delay
- Basic Sampling Theory
- Zero-Phase IIR Filtering
2 Discrete Fourier Transform
- DFT Properties
- DFT as a Matrix
- Convolution: Circular and Block
- Related Transforms
3 Spectrum Analysis
- Spectral Windows
- Sliding-Window DFT
- Narrowband Signals
4 Multirate Processing
- Bandlimited Interpolation
- Zoom Transform
- Rate Changing
5 Systems and Structures
- Systems and Structures
6 Stochastic Signals
- Stochastic Signals
- FFT Spectrum Estimation
- Modern Spectrum Estimation
7 Wordlength Effects
- Wordlength Effects
8 Discrete-Time Filter Design
- Discrete Design of FIR Filters
- Least-Squares Design of FIR Filters
- Chebychev Design of FIR Filters
- Design of IIR Filters
9 DFT and FFT Algorithms
- Direct Calculation of the DFT
- The Cooley-Tukey FFT
- Prime Factor FFTs
- General-Length FFTs
10 Applications
- Radar Simulation
- Introduction to Speech Processing
- Speech Modeling
- Speech Quantization
11 Signal Modeling
- Linear Prediction
- Linear Prediction of Speech
- Exponential Modeling
- Signal Estimation
- Least-Squares Inversion
12 Appendix A: Software and Programming Notes
Each section is divided into a number of projects which, in turn, are divided into a number of exercises.
To get an impression of the level these exercises hold, consider the section "Least-Squares Design of FIR Filters" in chapter 8. The section is divided in the projects
Project 1: FIR Filter Design by Least Integral Squared Error
Approximation
Project 2: Design of High-Pass, Band-Pass and Band-Reject
Least-Squared-Error FIR Filters
Project 3: FIR Filter Design Using Window Functions
The two first exercises of project 3 are (p 269):
=====================================================
Exercise 3.1: Design a Low-Pass Filter Using Windows
Design a length-23 linear-phase FIR low-pass filter
with a band edge of w0 = 0.3pi using the following
windows:
a Rectangular
b Triangular or Bartlett
c Hanning
d Hamming
e Blackman
Plot the impulse response, amplitude response and
zero locations of the four(sic!) filters. Compare the
charactersitics of the amplitude response of the five
filters. Do this in terms of the squared error, the
Chebychev error and the transition bandwidth. Compare
them to an optimal Chebychev filter designed with a
transition band and the least-squared-error filter
designed with a spline transition function. How do
you choose a transition bandwidth for a meaningful
comparision?
==================================================
Exercise 3.2: Design a Band-Pass Filter Using Windows
Take the band-pass filter designed in exercise 2.5
and apply the five windows. Analyze the amplitude
response.
====================================================
Hardly newbie material, in my opinion. The student really needs to know the material (Ex. 3.1) and has to be able to generate useful answers from a very generic job assignment (Ex. 3.2).
These are exactly the reasons why I find this type of exercises attractive (and perhaps why others may be repelled by them). The focus is consistently on what the authors call "learning by discovery" (which probably has little to do with the TV channel...): The student has to find the theory, implement and test most functions himself and has to process synthetic and real data (data and some auxillary functions are available via the www from MathWorks), and also evaluate the results of his efforts. This is exactly the kind of hands-on experience most DSP courses (and perhaps even DSP training programs) lack these days, and what makes this book so very useful.
Some conclusions based on a couple of hours browsing:
- This is NOT a textbook for learning neither DSP
nor MATLAB.
- The reader is expected to have working knowledge
of MATLAB and a firm theoretical basis in DSP.
- This book provides some badly needed hands-on
traning programs.
- The book consistently aims for building insight
and intuition.
- The book is perhaps too tuned towards use in a
class with an instructor.
Evaluation depends on individual needs and wants.......2000-10-31
My evaluation for this book, 2 stars, is based on my specific needs and wants that were the motivation for my purchasing this book, and resulted in disappointment.
I'm a first-semester graduate student in electrical engineering, and wanted to self-learn a lot of MATLAB and its uses with DSP, so that I could get a head's start in gaining the background I would later need for my research in DSP. I knew this book was a collection of exercises in which you create MATLAB programs (.m files) to solve DSP problems and explore various DSP topics. However, I also expected the book to give full solutions to the problems, working through the MATLAB scripts for you so that you could learn the DSP applications of MATLAB through practice.
Unfortunately, I was wrong... The book is divided into a series of projects, and with each project there is a brief explanation of the related theory, and then several problems which tell you to program MATLAB to do so and so, sometimes along with a few hints.... and NO SOLUTIONS ARE GIVEN. In fact, it's basically just a collection of problems. I think it's meant more for TEACHERS... to assign the problems in the book as homework for students in their DSP classes. In that respect, it is natural that there are no solutions included in the book.
In summary, this is not a book you want to buy if you're looking for something you can use to STUDY and LEARN how to apply MATLAB to DSP. It is essentially just a list of DSP problems which require you to use MATLAB. I'm sure the problems themselves are beautifully-crafted problems that would give you lots of insight and grasp of concepts once you have given lots of effort into them and then saw the solutions.... As just a book of problems, I'm sure it would be a top-quality book worthy of 5 stars (after all, look at its authors). But if nobody gives you the solutions, you can't learn a great deal from just the problems and briefly-explained theory.
Just make sure you know what this book is about and whether it really is what you're looking for before you purchase it. I'm planning on returning mine.
Excellent Applications Book.......2000-08-16
I have the previous edition of the book (Using Matlab 4) and this review is on that version... I find this book to be an excellent APPLICATIONS book. It is not intended to be a Matlab Primer; you are supposed to know Matlab programming already. It is also not intended to be a DSP Primer. This book takes the basic DSP knowledge you already have and allows you to expand on it by applying it to a variety of real problems, like radar ranging or speech processing or filtering. It also deepens your knowledge by giving you drill problems that go deep into the workings of the DFT and other basic DSP tools. I had the good luck of taking a couple of DSP courses with McClellan and Schafer when they were writing this book and they used to hand problems from the book as special homework after they had taught the underlying material. Doing these exercises after you know the basics is an excellent way to cement that knowlege and become more proficient both in matlab and in problem solving.
Empty Promises.......1999-06-16
This Schaums Outline-type manual apparently had been issued with an earlier text of McClellan's. It is made up of lecture-type problems too brief to understand without a closely keyed text. I'm returning the book. Hope you don't get fooled.
Book Description
Offering the advice, insights, experiences, and encouragement would-be Internet entrepreneurs need to establish a successful independent research business, this book provides an insider's view of Internet businesses and their unique services. Eleven entrepreneurial super searchers representing a broad range of topic specialties and business focuses are interviewed. Also discussed are the details for getting started, developing a niche, finding clients, doing the research, networking with peers, and staying well informed about Web resources and technologies.
Customer Reviews:
Very Informative.......2002-12-09
This book covers eleven information professionals who started their own business and succeeded. Each chapter is dedicated to one person, sporting his or her picture, a short bio, their email address and their URL. The chapters are written in a casual, interview style which is makes it a highly interesting read.
These individuals were asked about their background and how they became interested in the field they are working in. The logistics of starting their own business and the pitfalls were discussed, along with specific questions that pertained to their expertise.
Here are the fields that are covered:
Business Research
Aviation Expertise
Healthcare Industry Monitoring
Intellectual Property and Patents
Public Records
Civic Entrepreneurship
Corporate Libaries
Canadian Business Information
Value-added Research
Search Engines
On-line Information Gathering
I'll admit that I jumped to the chapter of Lynn Peterson: The Craft of Public Records, as it pertained to my own interests. She began doing background checks on prospective nannies. Today, she has assignments in the legal and corporate fields as well as with private individuals. Her story was inspiring and informative.
The Appendix offers some good sources and websites for research, books, and print media. I'd recommend this book for anyone who is interested in starting their own research business.
How researchers can make a business out of their pursuits.......2002-07-07
Super Searchers Make It On Their Own joins others in the Informaton Today "Super Searchers" series, continuing the process of interviewing top researchers and discovering how they do business. Here the searchers are running their own research businesses, developing niches, locating clients, and networking. Super Searchers Make It On Their Ownn is an intriguing, practical guide on the industry of research and how researchers can make a business out of their pursuits.
Book Description
The history and evolution of the fields of science and medicine are symbiotically linked and thus are mutually dependent. Discoveries in one domain have allowed for progress in the other, and it is nearly impossible to study one area in isolation. The influence of science and technologic discoveries on medicine has profoundly impacted the way physicians practice and has resulted in an extended life expectancy and quality of life that our ancestors never dreamed possible. Science and Technology in Medicine is a collection of 99 essays based on landmark publications that have appeared in the medical literature over the past 500 years. Each essay includes a summary of the article or chapter; text and images reproduced directly from the original source; a short biography of the author(s); and a discussion about the significance of the discovery and its subsequent influence on later developments. Original material by the likes of Dürer, Bernoulli, Doppler, Pasteur, Trendelenburg, Curie and Röntgen offers readers a rare glimpse at publications housed in archives around the world, beautifully reproduced in one fascinating volume.
Amazon.com
Sun Microsystems is the type of company that most new startups hope to become: massively profitable, astoundingly innovative, and supremely adaptable. But as Karen Southwick's engaging narrative High Noon makes clear, there were many bumps along the road to Sun's $25 billion market valuation. In fact, when Sun started out in the early '80s as a spinoff of the Stanford University Network (SUN), there was barely a road at all.
It's hard to remember a time when there wasn't a computer on every desktop, but in 1981, engineers had to stand in line to use their company's mainframes. Sun's business strategy was to sell a desktop workstation for each employee who needed a computer. On top of that, Sun allowed those workstations to exchange data via an intracompany network, and used graphical interfaces to make them easier to navigate. Standard stuff now, but a radical series of concepts back then, and it was inevitable that Sun would clash with Microsoft. Sun CEO Scott McNealy's enmity for the software colossus is well-known--he was a key player in the U.S. government's antitrust action against Microsoft in the late 1990s--and it temporarily scattered the company's focus, leading to a major reorganization.
The conclusion to the Sun story is, of course, unknown. Southwick ends her book with a peek into the future, speculating on what will become of promising computer languages like Java and Jini. But it seems like it'll be a long time before Sun sets. --Lou Schuler
Book Description
In 1982, a little upstart named Sun was making waves in the high-tech industry with its groundbreaking workstation technology, even as early competitors dismissed the company as not worth losing sleep over. Since then, Sun Microsystems has become a formidable presence in the industry, making its own rules and taking no prisoners, and is currently poised to reach the highest point of its ascendancy--the challenge of Microsoft's dominance over the future of computing.
The driving force behind this once fledgling company is a man who has been described as brash, unconventional, ambitious, forward-looking, and sometimes even his own worst enemy. Scott McNealy turned Sun into the multibillion-dollar success it is today--a developer of innovative software like Java that is revolutionizing the computing landscape.
High Noon is the inside story of Sun's rise to power, from its shaky start in Silicon Valley through its transformation under the aggressive and inspirational leadership of McNealy. Karen Southwick reveals the behind-the-scenes maneuverings of McNealy and Sun, with candid interviews from the key players and insights into the inner workings of the high-tech industry.
This book examines how scrappy underdog Sun overcame its larger and supposedly tougher competitors, combining hard work, tenacity, and talented people to build a more innovative and flexible company. You'll learn how McNealy moved Sun up the industry food chain, challenging more established companies like Hewlett-Packard and Digital Equipment by expanding Sun's product line and refocusing the business.
High Noon expertly chronicles McNealy's triumphant history with Sun, from his early days as vice president of manufacturing to a CEO known for shooting straight from the hip without regard for the consequences. You'll discover how "Javaman"--as Fortune magazine dubbed McNealy--prompted Sun to take risks that ultimately allowed it to survive, thrive, and dominate--making Microsoft stand up and take notice. And you'll see how Sun's looming showdown with this industry giant promises wide-reaching implications for businesses and consumers alike. Among High Noon's revelations:
* A new perspective on how the complex, contradictory McNealy shaped his company and fashioned its strategy
* Insight into central issues facing the high-tech industry, such as network computers and the future of the Internet
* An insider view of the maneuverings of industry powerhouses, including Microsoft, Oracle, Netscape, IBM, and Intel
* Both entertaining and instructive, High Noon offers valuable lessons for taking charge of your destiny and succeeding in a fast-paced, unpredictable, and even hostile environment.
Advance Praise for Karen Southwick's High Noon
"High Noon captures the electricity and drama of one of the most important high-tech sagas of our time. Rich with insight as well as previously undisclosed stories."--Jim Moore, Founder, GeoPartners Research, Inc. Author of The Death of Competition
"High Noon reveals the inside story of one of the companies Microsoft fears most, Sun Microsystems. Southwick uses her keen insight to tell the story of how four twenty-somethings created a company that has grown from a small seller of scientific computers to one of the most dominant high-tech firms in the world."--Eric Nee, Editor, Fortune
"Scott McNealy is one of the most complex, fascinating individuals in high tech. Karen Southwick captures the contrarian spirit of Sun Microsystems and the intriguing personalities that run it."--Howard Anderson, President, The Yankee Group
"High Noon takes us on a straight path to the future."--Dr. Eric Schmidt, Chairman and CEO, Novell, Inc.
"High Noon illustrates how a company can succeed in the technology industry through a delicate balance between drive, talent, and timing."--Carol Bartz, Chairman and CEO, Autodesk
Customer Reviews:
Not a good story book.......2006-01-31
Well, here I am, after reading the book for about two weeks every morning, and I am left with no deep impressions about either Sun or Scott.
The book appears to be a collection of newspaper articles. My first impression from the title of the book was that it talks a lot about Scott McNealy, which the author clearly failed to achieve. I guess the author could have rather written two books - a biography on Scott and business history of Sun. The book fails to achieve either of these satisfactorily.
I was hoping to know a lot about Java and Solaris, and although there were three chapters dedicated to Java, they didnt leave a lasting impression on me. The author seems to be unaware of other battles going around which would give Java a tough time to evolve.
Finally, the book doesnt really form a story. Its more like every chapter can be read almost independent of each other.
Thin.......2005-10-20
If you were on a desert island from 1982 to 1999, this book might have extra value to you. Otherwise, you may already know a great deal about what's covered in this book.
"High Noon" is quite readable but doesn't dig very deep. It provides a good, albeit Pollyanna-ish introduction to Sun's history and to McNealy...up until 1999. Did I learn anything? Yes, for example, I hadn't known that Gosling architected NeWS. But the level of this book isn't that much deeper than a Reader's Digest article.
If you don't know much about Sun's pre-2000 past and want a quick survey, "High Noon" may help you.
Good, just very dated.......2003-11-06
After recently taking on some professional responsibility for a large Solaris farm after a long hiatus (about a decade) from Sun technology, I thought this might catch me up with the company and products. It did provide some good info, but this work is over four years old, an eternity in technology. It certainly did not reflect Sun's rapid decline in market cap and Linux debacles, both of which landed it on the front page of the WSJ a few weeks ago.
I might have rated this four stars a few years ago. The only qualms are that the author should have presumed a more technical, computer-literate audience, and the audio quality was inferior (I listened to the unabridged Audible version).
Well researched and written, useful.......2002-09-27
Unlike most books of the high-tech, hero-worship genre, these authors actually did their homework and then wrote an intelligent, well organized history of Sun Microsystems and Scott McNealy. Given the multiple transformations that Sun has gone through (workstations, chip design, software design, servers, memory systems, enterprise hardware and software, and Java), as well as its famous feud with Microsoft and Mister Bill, that is no easy task, but they provide a succinct (225 page) and unbiased view that will be of interest to anyone who is interested in learning more about these subjects. The endnotes are particularly helpful.
Although the authors were not able to interview McNealy (he turned down their request), they do include intelligent observations about him and Sun from knowledgeable persons both within and outside Sun. Given the shallowness of McNealy's public comments and statements in other interviews to date (one suspects that he is finally learning to put a governor on his mouth), the omission is not noticeable.
It is rumored that Ms. Southwick is in the process of preparing a similar volume about Oracle and Larry Ellison. If so, it will be a welcome improvement over the swill (e.g., "The Oracle of Oracle" by Florence Stone) that has been published about them to date.
Needed more information about Sun the company.......2002-05-02
While I harbor no great love for Microsoft, I have even less for people who whine about a problem when they should be working on a solution. In my opinion, Scott McNealy is in that category. His constant verbal bashing of Microsoft detracts from what should be a positive message of Sun's advances in technology. Java, the crown jewel of software development at Sun, is a sound technical achievement. No one can examine the technical specifications of C#, the language developed at Microsoft, and not recognize its' Java "roots." In this book you learn about McNealy and I was gratified to learn that there are people at Sun who are just as frustrated at his "first whiner" tactics.
While Southwick goes to great lengths to maintain an even-handed approach, there is still a clear, although slight bias towards Sun. However, it does not detract from the quality. In my opinion, what lessened the value of the book was the emphasis on the personality of McNealy rather than that of Sun. As a major technology company, it is far more interesting than its' talkative CEO. From my perspective, Sun chief scientist Bill Joy is a more interesting personality than McNealy. A superlative, extrapolative thinker, Joy is someone to be listened to.
The complex interactions between Sun, IBM, HP, Oracle and Microsoft is one of the most fascinating events of our time. Simultaneously competitors as well as cooperators, how they move together dictates the rate of technical progress. This means far more to me than a series of negative comments about Bill and his group. Therefore, more ink should have been spent describing how these companies interact.
Book Description
Now available in a text-only paperback edition, THEY MADE AMERICA is a stirring and supremely readable work of historya celebration of the entrepreneurial energy that has fueled our nation since its inception. The real inventor of the steam engine. The creator of the bra. The man who invented modern banking. The creator of the computer operating system. These and scores of others are the characters who populate Harold Evanss brilliant, rollicking book about the men and women who made America great.
Customer Reviews:
Zey Tavia.......2007-09-25
This is an excellent book for gaining general information on the lifes and times of America's inventors. Suprisingly, a good deal of information about each subject is tightly packed and woven into each chapter. It is by no means, however, an indepth and intricate look into each innovator. You will need to do more research for that.
Overall, I highly recommend this book for anyone trying to gain some knowledge on a particular person, or about a particular invention. It is a great starter book for history enthusiasts as well.
Excellent Gift for the Entrepreneur, History Buff in your life.......2007-06-18
I rented the audiotape version from my local library and was hooked. I gave this book to my father for Christmas. Excellent insight into the influential Americans, and a great dose of our country's history at the same time.
Great coffee table book .......2007-01-18
very interesting - everyone will find something inspiring - whether you are an entrepreneur, a manager, an inventor or just looking to be inspired.
Must Read for any Business Person.......2006-08-06
This book is a number of short stories about successful business people, everyone from Robert Fulton (Steamboat Services), Isaac Singer (sewing machines), Charles Goodyear (rubber), Levi Strauss through to modern day people like Ted Turner, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Pierre Omidyar (eBay). The book is perfect for my personality type - it is a number of short stories so it didn't take long to read. There is a summary on page 465 of the book that gives 10 lessons that can be learned from history's innovators:
1. Make no assumptions.
2. First isn't always best.
3. It is okay to steal. (They don't really mean steal; they mean that more innovations come from borrowing in combination than simple invention. Henry Ford said, "I invented nothing new, I simple assembled into a car the discoveries of other men behind whom were century of work."
4. Diffidence would do it. An idea may only work when pushed to the limits.
5. Nothing works the first time. In an impatient society we expect instant results and quarterly earnings make things worse. It takes a strong person to persist and think long term.
6. New ideas disturb.
7. Cross pollination works. Taking ideas from other industries and applying them to a different industry is often a great way to cross-pollinate.
8. Success is risky. We all know that entrepreneurs take risks and we all know this is all part of the greatness of our system.
9. When one plus one equals three, this talks about innovations flourishing in partnerships provided the psychology is right.
10. Plaguing into networks. Isolated innovators may be successful but most of them are well connected and network well.
Overall I found this book to be highly inspirational and a must read for any business person.
A good change from political and military history.......2006-02-16
This book is a refreshing change of pace for American history buffs whose reading typically tends toward political or military topics. After all, most of what Americans actually interact with everyday are the products of inventors, innovators and entrepreneurs, not politicians or generals.
This large, lavishly illustrated, nearly 500-page tome provides biographical and business history summaries for more than 50 well known and not so well known industrial or business pioneers from John Fitch - steamboats in the 1780s, who knew? - to contemporary cybermillionairs and media moguls.
In my opinion the most interesting sections are the ones about the 19th Century industrial giants such as Goodyear, Edison and Ford who rose from very humble origins to found whole industries that shape the way we live and think today.
As other reviewers have commented the author's choices of which contemporary computer industry pioneers to annoint oddly shortchanges some the most influential entrepreneurs and the selection or presentation of some of the historic entrepreneurs does seem to at slant toward a PC point of view. Well.... this is the companion book to a PBS series so what do you expect? Objectivity?
Nevertheless, this is a useful, if non-definitive read about the history of American industry for both adults and younger people and serves a basis for further reading that might correct or balance some of the asserted shortcomings. A nine-page bibliography provides plenty of material for people who want to know more about any topic or personality the author covers.
Recommended as book to keep handy for reading or re-reading a chapter every now and then.
Amazon.com
John Naughton, to judge by this learned but lightly written history of modern communications technology, is deeply interested in just about everything. It mystifies the Irish-born Cambridge University scholar that so few people share his fascination with the Internet--and, he grumps, "the higher you go up the social and political hierarchy the worse it gets."
A Brief History of the Future, whose title is just right, is Naughton's attempt to educate the uninitiated in how the Internet came to be. Although its development occurred in starts and stops over a half-century, the Internet came into its own only in the 1990s, with the arrival of the World Wide Web and widely available software to negotiate it. Each of those innovations, though, drew on work that sometimes extends deep into the past, and Naughton does a good job of tracing technical lineages. Though studded with geekspeak, his narrative doesn't presuppose much background knowledge on his readers' part, unlike Stephen Segaller's worthy Nerds 2.0.1., which covers some of the same ground. Naughton's cast of characters includes such scientific and administrative luminaries as Norbert Wiener, Vannevar Bush, Paul Baran, Bill Gates, Linus Torvalds, and Tim Berners-Lee (but, sad to say, not Al Gore), each of whom made contributions large and small to what Naughton insists is a technological revolution with endless possibilities for the common good.
Well-written and richly detailed, Naughton's book is a fine introduction to the Net, and to the countless, largely unsung innovators who made it possible. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
"There is genuine passion in his writing about technology, and readers leave knowing the deep respect Naughton . . . has for the people who created the thing he loves." (Boston Globe)
"If knowledge is power, this book is an essential read for anyone who wants to be an active player in the 21st century." (Washington Times)
The Internet is one of the most remarkable and far-reaching achievements of mankind. Yet even as the Net pervades our lives, we begin to take it for granted. Most of us have no idea where the Internet came from, how it works, or what it means for society and the future; John Naughton has the answers.
A Brief History of the Future is a passionate book whose heroes are the visionaries who laid the foundations of the postmodern world; it celebrates the engineers and scientists who implemented their dreams in hardware and software, and explains the values and ideas that drove them. It is also a highly personal account: John Naughton writes about the Net as a part of life, and as a key influence on his own voyage from solitary child to established academic and writer. Above all, A Brief History of the Future is the story of vision and determination, and of the power of ideas to transform the world.
Customer Reviews:
I wish high school history had been like this.......2002-04-21
Next time you take a transcontinental flight to a technical conference, skip the airline movie and just read this wonderful book cover to cover. I wish history class in high school had been this much fun. Naughton has written the definitive history of the Internet so far. For example, when the Pentagon asked AT&T to build an early prototype of the Internet for them, AT&T pooh-poohed packet switching as a worthless idea concocted by some young whippersnapper (Paul Baran of the Rand Corp.) who knew nothing about proper telephone engineering. The book is full of anecdotes and funny stories. Great reading for old fogies and young fogies alike.
The entire history of the Internet's development.......2001-02-13
What does the Internet mean for the future? An answer partially depends upon an analysis of the past, and John Naughton's Brief History of the Future is the first book to cover the entire history of the Internet's development, from those who first thought of it in the 1940s to the scientists and engineers who brought it to life. Anecdotes blend with history to provide an intriguing blend of personal and scientific observation.
Great book - reads like a novel!.......2000-12-06
Reads like a sci-fi novel while providing a solid understanding of how and why the Internet works. At times the detail is almost overdone but this only adds to the credibility of the author. I started with a Timex Sinclair computer and have lived through the period covered in this book without really understanding just what made the internet work. Now I know!
For friends who don't understand your job........2000-10-21
I've worked in the software industry for twenty years, and now I finally have an entertaining, enjoyable book to give to friends and family who don't really understand what I do all day. If you've ever struggled to explain how the internet works, or why anybody would use it. This is the book. I gave a copy to my 77 year old flight instructor, he loved it.
The Stories and People of the internet You've Forgotten!.......2000-10-10
I loved this book because, while semi-technical, it is mostly about events and people that brought us the internet revolution. It took many "small bricks" to build the internet we know today, and hundreds of unsung hero's are revealed. Although I was not intimately involved in this revolution, it has touched my life over and over again, and now, at 70 years, I feel I am a part of it! I especially love the beginning of the authors personal story, which perfectly parallels my life and makes a marvelous connection between short-wave listening, ham radio, and the advent of the internet! The author is very clear in stating where there are "differing stories" about some of the events, which speaks well of his research in preparation for writing the book. This is a book for those that lived through the "beginning" of the future, and for those young people are pushing the future forward in the new millennium!
Average customer rating:
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Chemistry For Scientists And Engineers, Preliminary Edition with Internet Guide
Leonard W. Fine ,
Herbert Beall , and
John Stuehr
Manufacturer: Holt Rinehart & Winston
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General & Reference
| Chemistry
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General & Reference
| Chemistry
| Professional Science
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Mathematics
| Sciences
| New & Used Textbooks
| Stores
| Books
General
| Chemistry
| Sciences
| New & Used Textbooks
| Stores
| Books
ASIN: 0030318726 |
Average customer rating:
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The Internet for Scientist and Engineers: Online Tools and Resources
Brian J. Thomas
Manufacturer: American Society of Mechanical Engineers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Web Development
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
| Content Management
| E-commerce
| Programming
| Security & Encryption
| Web 2.0
| Web Design
| Web Servers
| Web Services
| Website Analytics
| Website Architecture & Usability
General
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Engineering
| Professional & Technical
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0791800636 |
Average customer rating:
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Internet For Scientists
O'DONNELL
Manufacturer: CRC
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Internet
| Home Computing
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
| Internet & Education
| Online Searching
| Web Browsers
| Web for Kids
General
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Computer Science
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 9057022214 |
Book Description
You may be a teacher, struggling to find new and interesting material; you may be a student, keen to keep up to date without spending hours in the library; you could be a well-established and respected member of the scientific community, vaguely bemused by the computer on your desk. Whoever you are, this book will help you to communicate instantly with individuals or whole groups of scientists working in your field. It will guide you through the jungle of bad information to places of vital interest to your research, and help you to avoid the many pitfalls along the way. You will learn how to find and obtain files or programs of value, made freely available by your colleagues. You will be told where to look for information on any scientific topic and shown how to find other sites of interest. You will then find out how to make a useful and impressive web presence for yourself, your school, or your department. After all, it is a fact today that if you are not on the web you are going to
Written by
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